Justification

uring the past several years, there has been a great Commenting on the Greek word for justify, McGrath Ddeal of theological discussion, even intense debate, observes, concerning the crucial biblical doctrine of justification by faith. The literature is vast and increasing, and the opin- The verb denotes God’s powerful, cosmic and universal ions are varied and proliferating. Without entering into the action in effecting a change in the situation between sin- debate, I would like nevertheless to reflect upon certain ful humanity and God, by which God is able to acquit crucial matters related to the basic biblical truth of justifi- and vindicate believers, setting them in a right and faith- cation by faith. ful relation to himself. (518)

The Definition of Justification wo defective definitions are offered, respectively, by TMiethe and Erickson. “In theology, [justification Understandably, numerous definitions have been offered, denotes] God’s pardoning sinners and restoring them to a with varying degrees of merit and helpfulness. A succinct state of righteousness” (Miethe 122). Erickson claims definition is found in Zondervan’s Dictionary of Bible and that justification refers to “the declaration that the Theology Words: “Justification: God’s pronouncement of a human has been restored to a state of righteousness in believer as righteous (Rom. 4:25; 5:16, 18)” (127). Cairns God’s sight,” and justification by faith is the declaration regards justification as the “establishment of a sinner in a that “the person has been restored to a state of right- righteous standing before God” (201). A fuller definition is eousness on the basis of belief and trust in the work of offered by Earle, quoting Cremer, justification “denotes Christ rather than on the basis of one’s own accomplish- nothing else than the judicial act of God, whereby man is ment” (108). Problematic and troublesome in these pronounced free from guilt and punishment” (Earle 152). definitions is the use of restoring and restored, words According to The Theological Wordbook, “Justification is which clearly refer to some prior condition of righteous- the act of God by which a sinner who believes in Christ is ness to which one is supposedly recovered through God’s declared righteous on the basis of what Christ has done for justification. When a sinner believes into Christ and is him or her on the cross” (201). For Sproul, justification justified by faith, he or she is not restored to a primeval “refers to a legal action” by which God “declares a person state of original righteousness; rather, the believer just in his sight. The Protestant view is often described as receives Christ as righteousness, thereby gaining Christ ‘forensic justification,’ meaning that justification is a ‘legal Himself as righteousness, a righteousness and a standing declaration’ made by God” (12). Packer defines justifica- in righteousness never possessed before. tion as “a judicial act of God pardoning sinners (wicked and ungodly persons, Rom. 4:5; 3:9-24), accepting them as just, In the Scriptures, justification means that God, according and so putting permanently right their previously estranged to His righteousness, declares a person righteous in His relationship with himself ” (Concise 164). Noting that jus- sight. When God justifies a believer in Christ, He tification is “a legal word, borrowed from the law courts, approves him or her as righteous before Him according to and the opposite of condemnation,” Stott says, “When the standard of His righteousness. Therefore, justification God justifies sinners, he declares a verdict, in anticipation is God’s action in declaring us righteous and approving us of the last day, that he has not only forgiven all their sins according to His righteousness, which is actually God but has also granted them a righteous standing of accept- Himself as righteousness. ance in his sight” (77). In Pocket Dictionary of Theological Te r m s we are told that as a Central to this understanding of justification is God’s action. God, and God alone, is the One who justifies. God forensic (legal) term related to the idea of acquittal, jus- is “righteous and the One who justifies him who is of the tification refers to the divine act whereby God makes faith of Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). The one who is justified by humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condem- God is the one who “believes on Him who justifies the nation, acceptable before a God who is holy and ungodly” (4:5). “Who shall bring a charge against God’s righteous. (69) chosen ones? It is God who justifies” (8:33). Justification,

Volume X No. 1 April 2005 67 therefore, is an action performed by the righteous God requirement, the one who sins must die. We praise the Himself. Lord that, in God’s gracious provision, the Righteous died on behalf of the unrighteous (1 Pet. 3:18), bearing up For us to be justified by God means that we are approved “our sins in His body on the tree” (2:24). God’s forgive- by Him, that is, we correspond to Him and are declared ness is based upon His righteousness, and apart from the righteous by Him in His sight. God can approve us because righteousness of God manifested in the gospel (Rom. we stand before Him not in our own righteousness but 1:16-17) and apart from God’s action in approving us clothed with Christ as our righteousness, and thus we can according to the standard of His righteousness, there declare, “He has wrapped me with the robe of righteous- would be no forgiveness of sins and no reconciliation to ness” (Isa. 61:10). This glorious fact was appreciated by God. But since Christ died for our sins and since God has both Zinzendorf and Charles Wesley and expressed by demonstrated His acceptance of Christ’s vicarious death them wonderfully in hymns. “God’s Christ, who is my by raising Him from the dead (4:24-25), God is bound by righteousness, / My beauty is, my glorious dress… / Our His righteousness to justify and forgive everyone who beauty this, our glorious dress, / Jesus the Lord, our believes in the resurrected Christ (10:9-10). Righteousness” (Zinzendorf, Hymns, #295). “No condemnation now I dread; / Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! / Alive n a very real sense, the need for justification is twofold. in Him, my living Head, / And clothed in righteousness IFor our salvation, we need to be justified by God, and Divine” (Wesley, Hymns, #296). for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, God needs to justify us so that He may then impart Himself into us as od approves us according to the standard of His own eternal life (5:18; 8:10; John 3:15). If God had not justi- Grighteousness. Whereas holiness is related to God’s fied His chosen and redeemed people, He would have had nature inwardly, righteousness is related to God’s ways to sentence us, under His righteous judgment, to the lake and actions outwardly. “Great and wonderful are Your of fire, thereby nullifying the purpose for which He creat- works, Lord God the Almighty! Righteous and true are ed humankind in His image. Hence, justification is Your ways, O King of the nations!” (Rev. 15:3). The right- necessary not only for our salvation but for God’s purpose. eousness of God refers to what God is in His action with God in Christ has justified us for His own sake and for the respect to justice and righteousness. God is required nei- sake of the desire of His heart, His good pleasure. ther to love us nor to show us mercy and grace; however, God is required by His own character to be righteous and The Importance of Justification to act righteously in all things. Righteousness is the foundation of His throne (Psa. 89:14). Furthermore, all that For Luther, and for many theologians today, especially God is with respect to righteousness is not something among Lutherans and Calvinists, justification is the doc- apart from Himself; the righteousness of God is God trine upon which the church stands or falls. Some regard Himself. If we realize this, we will see that when God jus- justification not only as the heart of the gospel but even tifies those who believe in Christ, approving them as the gospel itself. Stott points out that Luther called according to the standard of His righteousness, He actual- justification by faith “the principal article of all Christian ly approves them according to Himself, according to who doctrine, which maketh true Christians indeed” (77). To and what He is. be sure, the doctrine of justification is one of the most crucial doctrines in the New Testament. The Need for Justification Justification and the Gospel of God Our need for justification can be stated simply and directly: We are all sinners under the righteous judgment Although it would be hyperbolic to say, as Packer does, of God. We need to be justified by God because He is that the gospel of God is “the gospel of justification by righteous, and we are unrighteous and have no way of faith” (Essay 7), it is nonetheless true that if there were no making ourselves righteous in His sight according His justification by faith, there would be no gospel. This is standard. Apart from God’s justifying us, our situation revealed in the book of Romans. The subject of this Epistle would be hopeless, and, like all sinners, we would remain is the gospel of God—the gospel “concerning His Son, under the righteous judgment of God, destined for eter- who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, nal perdition. God would have no way, righteously, to who was designated the Son of God in power according to forgive us, and we would have no way to be forgiven by the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Him. The line from a sentimental song popular in the Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:3-4). The central thought of 1950s is a lie: “Although it makes Him sad to see the way Romans is that through the gospel—a gospel that is in fact we live, / He’ll always say, ‘I forgive.’” But God cannot a gospel of sonship—God is making sinners into sons of forgive us of our sins unless the righteous requirement of God to constitute the Body of Christ, which is expressed the law of God has been fulfilled, and according to this as local churches. If sinners are to become sons of God,

68 Affirmation & Critique they must first be justified by God, and for this reason justification is the procedure, life—the divine, eternal life Paul devotes a section of this Epistle to justification (John 3:15)—is the goal, for this life is the element by (3:21—5:11), including the definition of justification which God fulfills His purpose to have a corporate expres- (3:21-31), an example of justification (4:1-25), and the sion of Himself with His chosen and redeemed people result of justification (5:1-11). Apart from such a mar- (Gen. 1:26; 2:9). Justification, therefore, is not an end in velous justification, there could not be sons of God born itself; justification is for life and is “of life,” unto life. of God to express God; on the contrary, there would only “Through justification we have come up to the standard of be sinners under the righteous judgment of God. Christ, God’s righteousness and correspond with it, so that now the Son of God, is the center of the gospel, but justifica- He can impart His life to us” (Recovery Version, Rom. tion is the foundation of the gospel. The gospel “is the 5:18, note 2). It is because of righteousness, and only power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes,” because of righteousness, that our spirit is life (8:10). “In for “the righteousness of God is revealed in it” (1:16-17). God’s justification we have received righteousness…This Without the revelation of God’s righteousness and with- righteousness results in life (5:18, 21); hence, our spirit has out the justification of sinners by faith, there could be now become life” (Recovery Version, 8:10, note 7). neither the gospel of God nor the sons of God. Justification and the Experience of Christ The principle is the same in Galatians, where the word gospel is used numerous times. It is appropriate to claim Justification by faith is also the foundation of the believ- that the purpose of the book of Galatians was to cause its ers’ experience of Christ, which by its nature is personal recipients to know that the gospel preached by the apos- and subjective. This is portrayed in Luke 15. It was tle Paul was from God’s revelation (1:11-12). Because extreme hunger that motivated the repentant prodigal to Christ, a living person, was the focal point of Paul’s gospel, return to the house of his father, where there was an abun- Paul could speak of the gospel as the gospel of Christ (v. 7) dance of bread (vv. 16-17). The father ran, fell on his son’s and could testify that God revealed the Son in him so that neck, and kissed him affectionately, and afterward, before he might preach Him as the gospel (v. 16). As in Romans, feeding his son, he said to his slaves, “Bring out quickly the the goal of the gospel is to produce sons of God (Gal. best robe and put it on him” (v. 22). Only then did the 3:26), and once again the gospel is presented as a gospel father say, “Bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us concerning sonship. However, apart from the truth con- eat and be merry” (v. 23). The robe signifies Christ the cerning justification by faith, there is no gospel, and the Son as the God-satisfying righteousness—the righteous- sons of God cannot be produced. An essential component ness received in justification—and the fattened calf of “the truth of the gospel” (2:5, 14) is justification by signifies the rich Christ (Eph. 3:8), slain on the cross that faith. Regarding this, Galatians 2:16 is crucial: “Knowing we might enjoy Him as our God-given portion. Only after that a man is not justified out of works of law, but through the prodigal had been covered by the robe objectively faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed into Christ could he enjoy the calf subjectively. This is a picture of Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in Christ and objective justification as the basis for our subjective expe- not out of the works of law, because out of the works of rience of Christ. Once we have believed into Christ to be law no flesh will be justified.” The law functions as “our justified by faith and we have been clothed with Christ as child-conductor unto Christ that we might be justified out our righteousness, we are positioned and qualified to of faith” (3:24). Only through such a justification are we experience Christ subjectively in His unsearchable riches. all “sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (v. 26). Only by having the robe can we experience the calf. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to assert that apart from the foundational matter of justification by faith, there Justification and God’s Purpose would be no gospel of God and no sons of God. This underscores the importance of justification by faith. Justification by faith is important especially because it is necessary for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Justification by faith is important also because it is intrin- Justification, the gospel, eternal life, and experience of sically related to eternal life, to the believers’ experience Christ—all of these are for God’s eternal purpose. Far of Christ, and to the eternal purpose of God. from being an end in itself, justification is for God’s purpose. We have an indication of this in Genesis 15 and a Justification and Eternal Life revelation of it in Romans 4. In Genesis 15 God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the seed. Abraham Justification is related to our receiving eternal life. In said to Him, “I go childless” (v. 2), and “You have given me Romans 5:18 Paul uses a remarkable expression—justifica- no seed” (v. 3). After the Lord promised Abraham that “he tion of life. Justification is a necessary judicial procedure who will come out from your own body shall be your heir” enabling God to impart His life into redeemed sinners and (v. 4), He said, “Look now toward the heavens, and count to qualify forgiven sinners to receive eternal life. Whereas the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to

Volume X No. 1 April 2005 69 Abraham, “So shall your seed be” (v. 5). These verses make that a man is not justified out of works of law” (Gal. it emphatically clear that the issue between Abraham and 2:16). God here was the promised seed. Receiving God’s word, “he believed Jehovah, and He accounted it to him as right- Although we cannot be justified before God by works of eousness” (v. 6). We must attend to the crucial matter the law, we have been justified by the grace of God. In the here: Abraham believed God’s word concerning the prom- words of Titus 3:7, we have been “justified by His grace.” ised seed, and God accounted it to Abraham as In His grace God in Christ has done everything necessary righteousness. The point here is that Abraham to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law on our behalf, and He desires to justify us freely by His grace, believed that God was able to work something into him offering justification as a gift. There is no need for us to to bring forth a seed out of his own being for the fulfill- work, for grace eliminates work. “If by grace, it is no longer ment of God’s purpose. This kind of faith is precious to out of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Rom. God and is accounted by Him as righteousness. Abraham 11:6). Neither is there a requirement for us to do anything was justified by such a faith. (Recovery Version, Gen. or to engage in self-effort or to pay some kind of price. 15:6, note 1) God’s justification is by grace and by grace alone. What we could not obtain by law—God’s declaration that we are n Romans 4 Paul presents Abraham as an example of righteous in His sight—we have obtained through grace. Ijustification by faith, and this presentation, considered in the context of the book of Romans as a whole, is relat- Justification through the Redemption of Christ ed to God’s purpose. Verse 3 is a quotation of Genesis 15:6. In verse 12 Paul goes on to say that we, the believ- God can justify us freely because we are justified ers in Christ, should “walk in the steps of that faith of our “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (3:24). father Abraham.” Verse 13 continues, “For it was not Apart from redemption, God could not, righteously, jus- through the law that the promise was made to Abraham tify us by grace, for His righteousness would have not or to his seed that he would be the heir of the world, but allowed Him to do so. If the Lord Jesus had not shed His through the righteousness of faith.” The phrase heir of the redeeming blood on the cross and if He had not accom- world indicates that justification is for God’s chosen and plished redemption for us to satisfy all the requirements redeemed people to inherit the world so that they may of God’s righteousness for us, God would not have the exercise God’s dominion on earth. This is a matter of the ground to justify us. This means that apart from the kingdom for the fulfillment of God’s purpose (14:17; redemption which is in Christ, the grace by which God 8:28-29). Here we see the importance of justification. justifies us cannot reach us. But there is good news: We have “been justified in His blood” (5:9). Because the Lord Justification by Grace Jesus shed His blood to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness, God can justify us by His grace according Romans 3:24 tells that us that we, the believers in Christ, to His righteousness. have been justified “freely by His [God’s] grace.” Grace, as the expression of God’s love, is something freely given e have emphasized that justification is God’s action to us by God and done by God on our behalf. Because W to declare us righteous and to approve us according God has freely justified us by His grace, justification is a to the standard of His righteousness, which is actually free gift, a gift from God to us. According to the grace of God Himself. The basis for such a justification is the God, Christ once for all paid the price for our sins and in redemption of Christ: His redemption fulfilled all God’s requirements on us. Therefore, God, in His righteousness, can, and actually To redeem is to purchase back at a cost. We originally must, justify us freely. This indicates clearly that justifi- belonged to God but became lost through sin. The cation is not by our works but by the grace of God. requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory were so great upon us that it was impossible for us to ful- Because of our inherent sinfulness and weakness, no one fill them. However, God paid the price for us through can be justified by works, that is, by feeble human Christ, repossessing us at a tremendous cost. (Recovery attempts to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law of Version, Rom. 3:24, note 3) God in order to be approved by God. God’s righteousness is perfect, supreme, and absolute, and justification by the In 3:24 Paul says, “Being justified freely by His grace works of the law requires us to be perfect, a condition that through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” That is impossible for anyone to fulfill. Thus, we cannot be jus- Christ died on the cross for our redemption is revealed tified by our works, the works of law, and Paul makes this clearly in the New Testament. In the fullness of time, emphatically clear. “Because out of the works of the law “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under no flesh shall be justified before Him” (3:20). “Knowing the law, that He might redeem those under law” (Gal.

70 Affirmation & Critique 4:4-5). Christ the Son redeemed us by dying for us, there- Out of the works indicates relying on our own effort, but by fulfilling on our behalf the righteous requirements of out of faith indicates trusting in Christ and in what He has God’s law. “Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the done for us. By faith we, without effort, simply receive law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is and obtain God’s justification and thereby are declared written, ‘Cursed is everyone hanging on a tree’” (3:13). righteous before Him and approved by Him according to He “gave Himself for us that He might redeem us” (Titus Himself as righteousness. 2:14), and His blood obtained eternal redemption for us (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Heb. 9:12). y faith we appropriate what Christ has done on our Bbehalf for our justification. Christ died for our sins, od can justify us, approving us according to the pouring out His blood to accomplish redemption and to Gstanding of His righteousness, because God’s justifi- satisfy God’s righteous demands so that God could justi- cation is based upon Christ’s redemption. When the fy us freely by His grace and according to His redemption of Christ is applied to us, we are justified righteousness. However, if we do not believe in Christ, freely by God’s grace. If there were no redemption, there and also into Him (John 3:15), the Lord Jesus and what would be no justification, for it would be impossible for He has done cannot be applied to us. The grace of God us to be justified by the righteous God. According to and the redemption in Christ Jesus are on God’s side, but Romans 3:24 we are justified through Christ’s redemp- faith in Christ is on our side. By His grace and through tion and by God’s grace: Christ’s redemption, God can justify us, and He desires to do this, yet if we are to be justified by God actually and This means that because God is righteous, He must have experientially, we need to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. a proper ground to justify us by His grace. Apart from Only through such faith can we partake of Christ and of Christ’s redemption, God would not have the ground to all that He has done for us and be justified by God in Him. justify us. For this reason, Christ’s redemption is needed. God’s love caused Him to have grace on us, and His right- We would hasten to add that this justifying faith does not eousness caused Him to accomplish redemption for us originate with us, for in ourselves we do not have the abil- through Christ. Therefore, our being justified is a matter ity to believe in Christ for our justification. It is not both of God’s grace bestowed on us and God’s righteous- possible for us simply, as an act of will, to choose on our ness accomplished for us… own to believe in the Lord. Rather, faith—the capacity to believe in Christ and thereby receive Him and the benefits On God’s side justification is by His righteousness; on our of His redemptive work—is a gift from God. The source of side justification is by His free grace as compared with faith is the Lord, not ourselves. For this reason, Hebrews justification by the work of the law. To be justified by the 12:2 speaks of Christ as “the Author and Perfecter of our work of the law we need to work, but to be justified by faith.” “This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who the redemption in Christ there is no need of our work, for imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He it is freely given by His grace. (Lee 1390) may believe for us” (Recovery Version, Heb. 12:2, note 3). This means that for our justification by God, we believe in Justified by Faith Jesus Christ through Him as our faith. Paul, therefore, speaks of “the faith of Jesus Christ” (Rom. 3:22): The justification that is by grace and through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is also the justification that This faith refers to the faith of Jesus Christ in us, which is by faith. That this is the clear and evident revelation of has become the faith by which we believe in Him… Scripture cannot reasonably be denied. “From all the things from which you were not able to be justified by the Faith has an object, and it issues from its object. This law of Moses, in this One everyone who believes is justi- object is Jesus, who is God incarnate. When man hears fied” (Acts 13:39). “That He might be righteous and the Him, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, One who justifies him who is of the faith of Jesus” (Rom. He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to 3:26). “We account that a man is justified by faith apart believe in Him. Thus, He becomes the faith in man by from the works of the law” (v. 28). “God is one, who will which man believes in Him… justify the circumcision out of faith and the uncircumci- sion through faith” (v. 30). If man believes in Him, he is righteous to the uttermost before God, and God reckons this faith as his righteous- Knowing that a man is not justified out of works of law, ness. At the same time, this faith brings its object, that is, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed this One who is God incarnate, into those who believe in into Christ Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in Him. He is God’s righteousness, and God has given Him Christ and not out of the works of law, because out of the as righteousness to those who are indwelt by Him (Jer. works of law no flesh will be justified. (Gal. 2:16) 23:6). All this is out of, and depends on, the faith that is

Volume X No. 1 April 2005 71 in Him and of Him (Heb. 12:2). (Recovery Version, Rom. through believing into Him. We have pointed out that 3:22, note 1) according to the Lord’s own word in John 3, we need to believe into Him and thus enter into Him. Paul continues e would emphasize the fact that to believe in Christ this thought by explaining that justification is not merely W is actually to believe into Him (John 3:15-16, 18, a matter of believing in an objective Christ in a doctrinal 36). When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we believe into way; justification also requires that we be in Christ—that Him. By believing into Him, we enter into Him to be one we enter into Christ by believing into Him. Now that we with Him, to partake of Him, and to participate in all that are in Him, we enjoy a spiritual, organic union with Him, He has accomplished for us. By believing into Him, we are and in this union God reckons Christ as righteousness to identified with Him in all that He is and in all that He has us. Only in this way can we be justified by God. passed through, accomplished, attained, and obtained (1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1). Christ is the right- his understanding of justification in union with Christ eousness of God, and, by God’s grace, He is righteousness Tis supported by Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “Of to us from God. By believing into Him with the God- Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us given faith, we enter into Him and are one with Him as from God: both righteousness and sanctification and the One who is our righteousness. As a result of believing redemption.” What we are and have in Christ is of God, into Christ with the faith that is both of Christ and in not of ourselves, for God is the source and the cause of Christ, we are justified by God—declared righteous in His our being in Christ Jesus. The precious phrase in Christ sight and approved by Him according to the standard of Jesus points to our union with the resurrected Christ as His righteousness. This is because when God sees us, He the life-giving Spirit (15:45), with whom we have been sees us in Christ, even He sees just Christ. joined to be one spirit (6:17). Because we enjoy such a union with Christ and are thereby in Him, Christ becomes Justification in the Organic Union with Christ righteousness to us, and we are justified in Him.

Faith in Christ brings us into an organic union with It is significant that two recent articles address this rela- Christ, and it is in this union that we are justified by God. tion of justification and the believers’ union with Christ. If we would be justified by grace, by faith, and through The first article, written by Michael F. Bird, bears a the redemption which is in Christ, we must be in Christ, lengthy title: “Incorporated Righteousness: A Response to that is, we must be in Him as a realm, a sphere. Recent Evangelical Discussion concerning the Imputation Commenting on the sphere of justification, Stott says, of Christ’s Righteousness in Justification.” His thesis is “We are ‘justified in Christ’ (Gal. 2:17). This is a neg- related to our union with Christ: lected phrase. It means that we are justified only when we are united to Christ” (78). What is set out below is that believers are incorporated into the righteousness of Christ. The matrix for under- Paul places great emphasis on justification in Christ. Acts standing justification is union with Christ. It is the 13:38 and 39 say, “Through this One forgiveness of sins is contention of this study that several passages in the announced to you; and from all the things from which you Pauline corpus support this perspective. (261) were not able to be justified by the law of Moses, in this One everyone who believes is justified.” This One is Christ, Central to the development of his argument is that through the Son of God in the eternal Godhead and the Son of faith “believers are incorporated or identified with the Man in incarnation, who, according to Paul’s quotation of risen and justified Messiah, and they are justified by virtue Psalm 2:7 in verse 33 and his word in Romans 1:3-4, was of their participation in him (cf. Col. 2:12; 1 Cor. 15:17)” begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn (267). According to Bird’s understanding, for Paul “being Son of God (Rom. 8:29)—the Son of God both in His ‘in Christ’ means identifying with Christ’s death and res- divinity and in His humanity. To be justified by God, we urrection where union with him is in the sphere or realm not only must believe Him or believe in Him—we must be of justification” (273). With this in view, Bird speaks of in Him as the One who was resurrected to be our Savior. “incorporated righteousness, for the righteousness that Apart from being in Christ—in this One—we cannot be clothes believers is not that which is somehow abstracted justified. Moreover, the One in whom we are justified is from Christ and projected onto them, but is located exclu- Christ Himself in resurrection as our justification. sively in Christ as the glorified incarnation of God’s righteousness” (274). This leads to the following conclu- In Galatians 2:17 Paul speaks of “seeking to be justified in sion: “Justification cannot be played off against union with Christ” and in the previous verse, of our having “believed Christ, since justification transpires in Christ” (275). In his into Christ Jesus that we might be justified out of faith in essay “Imputation or Union with Christ? A Response to Christ.” These verses reveal that justification is not only John Piper,” Don Garlington is concerned with the modal- a matter of faith in Christ but also of being in Christ ity of justification. “It is the contention of this paper,” he

72 Affirmation & Critique informs us, “that the free gift of righteousness comes our Justification is unto eternal life and for eternal life. We way by virtue of union with Christ” (1). Asserting that have Christ as our righteousness so that we may have some theologians overlook “the most obvious factor”— Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). Because of righteousness, our union with Christ—Garlington claims that “faith justifies spirit has become life itself, as Paul tells us plainly in because we are united to Christ and are ‘found in Him’ Romans 8:10. Therefore, God justifies us, declaring us (Philippians 3:9)” (9). “Paul points us to the ‘in Christ’ righteous in Christ, in order that He may have the ground experience as the source of our righteousness” (30), and righteously to dispense Himself into us as eternal life (vv. everything is “explained by his doctrine of union with 2, 6, 11). Christ, and one need look no further for a rationale or elu- cidation” (31). The following remark may rightly be To regard justification as an end in itself is to mistake the regarded as a summary and conclusion of Garlington’s the- goal for the procedure, an error that every careful student sis: “As throughout, my contention is that Christ has of the Word should be exercised to avoid. God’s eternal become our righteousness by virtue of union with himself, purpose to have a corporate man in His image to express plain and simple” (34). Him with His glory and to represent Him with His author- ity is fulfilled not by justification but by life. For this The appearance of seminal articles such as these indicates reason, God placed the man created by Him in front of the that we are not alone in asserting, according to the tree of life, which signifies God in Christ as the divine life, Scriptures, that justification is predicated upon and takes desiring that the man would receive eternal life by partak- place in our spiritual, organic union with Christ. ing of the fruit of the tree of life and thereby be born of God to become a son of God. Because of the fall, The Result of Justification humankind was cut off from the tree of life, access to which was prevented by God’s righteousness, holiness, and In conclusion, I need comment only on the result, or the glory. Through His death on the cross for our redemption, issue or outcome, of our justification in Christ. Christ fulfilled the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory and opened the way to the tree of life. Christ as Our Righteousness Now, based upon God’s justification in Christ, we, the believers in Christ, have the right to partake of the tree of For centuries theologians have claimed that in justification life (Rev. 22:14) for the carrying out of God’s original pur- the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. The question pose in creating us. This is the far-reaching significance of of imputation I prefer to leave for another occasion, but justification being of life, unto life, and for life. the matter of the righteousness of Christ being reckoned, or accounted, to us needs both clarification and correction. Access to the Triune God as Grace It is not accurate to say, as Lutheran and Reformed writers usually do, that the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to Romans 5:1-2 say, “Therefore having been justified out of our account. We do not have something called “the right- faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus eousness of Christ”; rather, as those who have entered into Christ, through whom also we have obtained access by an organic union with the Lord by believing into Him, we faith into this grace in which we stand.” Here grace is a have Christ Himself, the person, as our righteousness. God realm, and this realm is the Triune God Himself. Grace is does not intend to give us things, not even divine attrib- not a mere thing, such as unmerited favor. Grace is God utes, apart from Christ. On the contrary, God’s desire is to Himself in Christ to be everything to us for our experience give us Christ as everything by placing us into Him and and enjoyment of Him. The following note is enlightening: Him into us. Just as we do not have eternal life as an element apart from the Son but have life by having the Son Grace is the Triune God Himself, processed that we may (1 John 5:11-12), so we do not have justification or right- enter into Him and enjoy Him. Grace here, in the deep- eousness apart from the person of Christ. Thus, God does est sense, is the Triune God as our enjoyment. It is more not give us the righteousness of Christ—He gives us Christ than unmerited favor and more than mere outward bless- as our righteousness. In Christ we are justified by God, and ing. We are not merely under God’s blessing; we are in in Christ we have Christ as our righteousness, as right- His grace. (Recovery Version, v. 2, note 2) eousness to us from God. The difference here is important, for it is the difference between having an attribute—right- Because we have been justified by God in Christ, grace is eousness—or having a person—Christ Jesus. with our spirit (Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23), and we are in the realm of grace. Eternal Life The Foundation for the Experience of Christ The justification revealed in the New Testament is, in the words of Paul, a “justification of life” (Rom. 5:18). The subject of Philippians is the experience of Christ, and

Volume X No. 1 April 2005 73 everything in this book should be understood in this light. according to the good pleasure of His will, the desire of God intends that we experience and enjoy Christ for the His heart. building up of the Body of Christ. However, the genuine experience of Christ, the experience portrayed in by Ron Kangas Philippians, must have a foundation, and this foundation is our justification by God by His grace and our faith. A Works Cited verse in chapter 3 indicates this. Paul desired to “be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is Bird, Michael F. “Incorporated Righteousness: A Response to out of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, Recent Evangelical Discussion concerning the Imputation of the righteousness which is of God and based on faith” Christ’s Righteousness in Justification.” Journal of the (v. 9). Paul aspired to be found in Christ, having a right- Evangelical Theological Society. 47:2 (June 2004): 253-275. eousness which had its source in God and was based on Cairns, Alan. Dictionary of Theological Terms. Greenville: faith. “Paul lived in a condition of having not his own Emerald House Group, 1998. righteousness but the righteousness that is out of God, in order to know (experience) Christ and the power of His Campbell, Don, Wendell Johnston, John Walvoord, and John resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” Witmer. The Theological Wordbook: The 200 Most Important (Recovery Version, v. 10, note 1). Like Paul, we have been Theological Terms and Their Relevance for Today. Nashville: justified by God, and also like Paul, we have a foundation Word Publishing, 2000. for our experience of Christ. DeMoss, Matthew S., and J. Edward Miller. Dictionary of Bible and Theology Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. Brought Back to God’s Original Purpose Earle, Ralph. Word Meanings in the New Testament. One-vol. Although justification by grace and by faith is an indis- ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986. pensable truth, it is not in itself God’s eternal purpose. Erickson, Millard. J. The Concise Dictionary of Christian Rather, justification should be interpreted and under- Theology. Rev. ed. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001. stood in the light of God’s purpose and not the other Garlington, Don. “Imputation or Union with Christ? A way around. Regarding this, the following remark surely Response to John Piper.” http://www.tanglewood- misses the mark: “The Bible teaches that God elected baptist.com/newsletter/01-03/theology/ gar_imp.htm. men in eternity in order that in due time they might be justified through faith” (Packer, Essay 2-3). On the con- Grenz, Stanley J., David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling. trary, Ephesians 1:4 and 5 say, “Even as He chose us in Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Downers Grove: Him before the foundation of world to be holy and with- InterVarsity Press, 1999. out blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto Hymns. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1980. sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to Lee, Witness. The Conclusion of the New Testament. Anaheim: the good pleasure of His will.” God’s purpose is to have Living Stream Ministry, 1987. many sons produced by His life for His corporate expression, which initially is the church, the Body of ———. Footnotes. The Recovery Version of the Bible. Christ, and consummately is the New Jerusalem in the Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2003. new heaven and new earth. The ones chosen by God to McGrath, Alister E. “Justification.” Eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne be holy and predestinated unto sonship all became fallen and Ralph P. Martin. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. and sinful, alienated from the life of God and thus Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993. 517-523. unable to participate in God’s eternal intention. Miethe, Terry L. The Compact Dictionary of Doctrinal Words. However, for the sake of His original purpose, God has Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1988. redeemed and justified His chosen people and has placed them in a position where He, righteously, can impart Packer, J. I. Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Himself into them as life to make them holy, glorious Beliefs. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1993. sons for His expression. Justification, although neither ———. Introductory Essay. The Doctrine of Justification: An God’s purpose nor the center of God’s purpose, is a nec- Outline of Its History in the Church and of Its Exposition essary judicial procedure to bring God’s elect back to from Scripture. By James Buchanan. Carlisle: Banner of Himself and into His eternal purpose. In the mercy and Truth Trust, 1961. grace of God, we, through justification, have Christ as our righteousness, the right to enjoy eternal life, access Sproul, R. C. Justified by Faith Alone. Wheaton: Crossway into the Triune God as a realm of grace, and the founda- Books, 1999. tion for the experience of Christ. Furthermore, based Stott, John. Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, upon justification unto eternal life, we, in Christ, are one Integrity, and Faithfulness. Downers Grove: InterVarsity with God for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose Press, 1999.

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